I wanted to watch this because of the promising premise of the anime delving in transgender issues, which is something one rarely sees, inside of anime and outside of it as well. When this anime was brought to my attention, I was very hopeful. When I watched it, I simply ended up being very disappointed.
While the anime does attempt to show transgender issues and the struggles that people with Gender Dysphoria go through, especially during the critical stage of puberty, it vitally comes shorts of its goal. Instead of really delving into the issues trans people go through, everything is glossed over and watered down.
At points it takes itself seriously and tries to show the issues. At other points it leaves you stretching your head with how confusing the characters are. I understand they are struggling, but the way they presented it was utterly unbelievable to me. I felt that while this anime tried to do a service to transgender individuals, but it only succeeded in making people more confused about it and leaving several horrible, unforgivable misunderstandings about transgender, which I'll get to later in this review.
I think what hurt this anime most was a lack of direction. It didn't know what to do with itself. One episode, they are transgender teens. The next, they are simply cross-dressers. The next it's just your below-par romance / slice-of-life anime where the underlying issue is barely touched on or mentioned at all.
The anime lacked any real depth to it and fell flat when trying to add any depth. Overall, the story wasn't very well done and didn't accurately portray the premise. That said, I don't think that the story was bad per se, I just think it was disappointing and left a lot to be desired. If you want a story with depth about transgender people, this anime isn't it.
Art: 5/10
I'll be honest, I didn't like the art. I also didn't think that the art was appropriate to the tone of the anime - if it even had a tone. At this point, I'm not sure if it did. It was too bright and very...childlike, for lack of a better word. I haven't read the manga, and after watching the anime, I don't intend to, but the style would make sense if this is how the manga looks. Still, the art only left me with a feeling of disconnect. There were also a lot of still shots and many scenes where nothing happened. It just wasn't impressive and instilled nothing in me. The entire look was innocent cuteness, and I feel that did a disservice to the underlying issue of the anime.
Sound: 8/10
This was one of the strong people of the anime. While I didn't like the music, I found the lyrics to be heartwarming and very emotional. In fact the songs at the beginning of the anime and the end of it where the only things to elicit any sort of true emotion from me while watching this anime. The voice acting was top notch and each VA did an outstanding job of portraying their characters.
Character: 4/10
The characters were by far the weakest point of this anime. Again, it lacked direction and the characters couldn't seem to make up their minds about who they really were. That was more than evident with Nitori. I think the show has the potential to confuse because with his character. Is (s)he transgender or just a cross-dresser? I honestly can't tell. In some episodes, she's transgender. In other episodes he is just a cross-dresser.
S/He's constantly going back and forth with it. Sometimes the anime makes it seem like it's a phase Nitori's going through, while other episodes make it seem like Nitori's truly struggling because (s)he wants to be a girl. I couldn't make heads or tails of it.
I also felt they did a huge disservice to the transgender community by insinuating that a person will want to change genders if other people force them to dress as the opposite sex. Scientific research has proven this is be unfounded. In fact, there is only one case that I am aware of in which this is true (18 children were thought to be female at birth. When they hit puberty they're anatomy corrected itself and it was proven that they were all biologically male. 2 of 18 decided to continue cross-dressing but still identified as male, while one underwent gender reassignment surgery. All the other switched easily, and happily, into their correct gender. Please see Dominican Republic Syndrome for more information).
To assume that Nitori wants to be girl (or that his mentor wanted to be a girl) because others thought it was cute and it changed his/her/their opinions of their gender is too much for me to shallow in light of the seriousness of the premise which they were trying to go for.
Nitori also seemed to flip-flop with his sexuality. Now sexuality can get pretty damn confusing for transgender people. Are you gay, straight, bisexual, etc...? these questions are hard to answered when confused about your gender, but the way this anime went about it was wrong in my opinion.
At first he likes a girl who wants to be a boy and is in love with the boy that she believes she is (which would make Nitori a straight woman if Nitori is trans). Then this changes and he's attracted to women (making Nitori a lesbian if Nitori is trans). Or is he simply bisexual or pans or something? Honestly, I don't know. It's too ambiguous and glosses over all of these issues to the point it might have been better had this problems not been touched on at all.
In my opinion, this anime tried to touch on sensitive subjects and failed miserably. The characters, while I understand were in a confused age, weren't believable. In scientific studies, it is shown that many transgender individuals know what their real gender is by the ages of 4-7, sometimes sooner, sometimes later. By the age they are in this anime, it's not likely that they wouldn't know. Yes, they'd probably be confused, but this anime went more than them just being confused. It made transgender struggles less than what they truly are. It...romanticized it in a way when it shouldn't be romanticized.
The only ones truly believable where those who bullied Nitori and Nitori's sister, and even that was downplayed to an alarming level. The characters took these issues too lightly. I can't blame the voice actors for this. I can only blame the script and the people who made it. The characters were shallow and didn't accurately represent the transgender community.
Enjoyment: 5/10
Because of all the problems with this anime, I found it hard to enjoy. The pacing was too slow and everything was shallow and watered down. Maybe it's because I've studied this topic extensively, but I just couldn't find much enjoyment from it. If the anime had delved deeper into the struggles and hardships and confusion and hopelessness that trans people often face, I would have enjoyed it more. But it didn't, so I couldn't.
Overall: 6/10
This wasn't a bad anime, it just wasn't very well done either. I don't think it should be watched without prior understanding of transgender or else it can leave you confused. On the positive, it also has the potential to cause people to research transgender, which is always a good thing. To me, this anime lacked direction so it wasn't a very good anime, but it wasn't bad either. It was fine. Nothing more, nothing less. There was nothing terribly wrong with it, nor was there anything that I found to be exceptional. It wasn't ground breaking and left misconceptions, but it did try and I do respect this anime for trying. Fir this, I give it a 6 out of 10.
